1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photographing apparatus and a photographing method using the photographing apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to a photographing apparatus and method to provide a better quality image.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a subject is photographed using an image pickup device, an exposure amount, which is an amount of light irradiated onto a image pickup surface, sometimes may need to be adjusted. If the exposure amount is too much or too small, a clear image cannot be obtained, and thus, it is important that the exposure amount be adjusted appropriately. In addition, during flash photography, a preliminary light emission of the flash occurs before opening/closing of the shutter, the brightness of the preliminary light emission is measured by an optical measuring sensor (e.g. an optical measuring unit), and the photographing apparatus calculates the exposure amount required by the flash in the photographing operation.
Japanese Laid-open Patent No. 2007-20125 discloses an optical measuring sensor, which is installed in a main body of a photographing apparatus and can measure an amount of light of the subject in a preliminary light emission operation. In Japanese Laid-open Patent No. 2007-20125, the light from the subject is reflected by a shutter installed in a main body of the photographing apparatus in the preliminary light emission operation, and the optical measuring sensor measures the light reflected by the shutter.
However, the shutter is installed in the photographing apparatus to be adjacent to a lens rather than an image pickup surface of an image pickup device, such as a charge-coupled device (CCD) or a film. Therefore, a space exists between the shutter and the image pickup surface. In addition, a focusing lens is driven to focus (i.e., to realize an in-focus status) the subject image at the image pickup surface. Therefore, in a conventional image pickup apparatus, the in-focus status is not realized on the surface of the shutter even in the preliminary light emission operation. Thus, the optical measuring sensor measures the light that is incident but not focused on the shutter surface, and exact information about the light cannot be obtained.
In a case where the optical measuring sensor is formed of a cell or a few cells, it is desirable for the light distribution or the light amount to be determined approximately. Also, when a size of the optical measuring sensor is reduced or the number of cells constituting the optical measuring sensor is increased, accurate information about the light should be received in order to utilize the optical measuring sensor.
However, since light is not focused on the shutter surface, persons or objects in the subject image may appear expanded or contours of the persons or objects can become vague. Therefore, in a case where the optical measuring sensor, which has a small size or is formed of a plurality of cells, receives the light reflected by the shutter, information about the light cannot be obtained with high accuracy.